Daughter of the Seas
by Castle Solo
Summary: Sera is a normal teen with an extraordinary past. Now, its come out to haunt her.
1. Chapter 1

This is another feeble attempt to catch any and all adventure and make it my own in my own way. I was a little disappointed by the Lightning Thief movie's applicability to the books and I wanted to rest the agitated beast within me. So I hope you all enjoy this. Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing. I wish I did.

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**Daughter of the Seas**

What kind of a name is Serenity Savage? An oxymoron, that's what. Unfortunately, it's my kind of name. Hey, give me a break. The day I was born I had no means by which to protest my mother's name choice. Besides, she was all hyped up on epidural drugs that day. I was a difficult delivery apparently. Call me Sera.

So here's a little bit about me. I live in Phoenix, Arizona, the one great big hell hole. But it is _my_ great big hell hole, thank you very much. I'm quite partial to every one of the 120 degrees that plague the rest of the population. To cope with the hellfire of my home, I began swimming at age two. Swimming, oh the glorious word. Water of any sort is absolutely necessary for my survival. Now, age 17, I am a synchronized swimmer for the Aqua Stars, the Arizona club team. One of the great things about doing my synchro (the affectionate name given by all of us girls to our favorite sport): I have built up my lungs for near ten years. I have always been comfortable holding my breath underwater; anything to let me stay in that wonderfully silent yet peacefully calm water. I have held the record for holding my breath which is a cool six minutes and fifty six seconds. The only reason I came up was that I had to hiccup. So needless to say, I was the freak of nature.

It didn't help being a five foot eight high school junior. Well, technically I am a senior now that it is the summer. In school I was anything but the popular girl. Me and my friend though, Bridget, we'd have the time of our lives by ourselves scheming new plots for running coups or discussing the latest episode of Chuck. Yeah, I'm a nerd too, you can say it. Hence, the adoration for Chuck, FlashForward, Firefly and Serenity (I'd like to think of that as my namesake), Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and many, many other geeky movies. I didn't have many other friends though. I guess you could say I had a friend complex. With Bridget I didn't feel like I needed anything else. We were just normal, American teens living the American dream and wishing to be anywhere but where we were.

I live at the local pool. When I was first recruited by the Aqua Stars at age ten, my mom let up the lease on our old apartment and we moved into the complex just adjacent to the practice pool. I'd always walk over and swim. My mom even bought me a season pass every year. I'd get a new one on my birthday, June 21st, every year. To me it is just the sign of pure awesomeness when your mother is willing do uproot everything just to support you in everything you set your mind to. She's a pretty cool girl, my mom. Jodi Savage has been a single mother for over 17 years and I have loved her every minute of it. For the first fifteen years of my life we had it pretty rough though. My mom is a graphic designer, making graphics and logos for different company. She hardly had any work that is until I was fifteen. She got offered a huge gig to do an ad for Coca Cola. At first she was hesitant to take it but I convinced her to go for it. We discuss everything together, she is one of my greatest confidants. They loved the ad and they recommended her to an agent who instantly got her a bunch of other offers from different companies. We then began to live comfortably. Suddenly, we had money we could spend and that was one of the nicest things to know. We didn't use it a lot but it was nice to be secure. That was always how I felt with my mom, secure, safe, at home.

So today was just another day for the two of us. I walked out the door at exactly 7:30 am, giving my mom a hug goodbye while she sat at her computer designing. I would say 'I love you,' and she would answer, "I know," just as she always did. But then as I walked through the door she called to me again.

"Don't get into any trouble today, okay?" I was slightly confused but shrugged it off.

"Alright, only one fight then."

"Sera," She scolded.

"I'm just kidding, gee. Love ya, bye." I called through the door as I made my way down the two flights of stairs to the street.

I drove my lovely and fantastically old Ford F250 to school. I know it's not very environmentally friendly, but it's safer than every other car. I'd like to see some little Prius try to rip through my full steel 1950s style frame. I arrived at school ten minutes before the bell. I headed up to the library to meet with Bridget. We had a morning ritual we hardly ever missed, even though it was the last two days of school and hardly anyone was even at school. In the library there was a little alcove where we'd meet and discuss our thoughts and plans.

"Good morning, Darklighter." I murmured as I saw Bridget sitting there on the couch, curled up with a math book and her homework. "Math is second period, you've got less than two hours to finish that." She looked up and smirked.

"Good morning to you, Thirteen. Just finishing up, actually. I have some interesting news for you." She put the book away, put her name on top of the lined piece of paper then put that way too. Patting the spot next to her, I scooted in.

"Pray tell, what news do you bring me, Darklighter?" Now I'm going to interrupt so I can explain the names. I'd gotten my name because the first day I met Bridget I had just come home from a swim meet and my number was still written in bright blue sharpie on my arm. "13" it read. She had just moved into a house in the subdivision next to our complex and we bumped into each other at the mail box where she was getting someone's mail for them. Seeing the number she decided to start our first conversation with it. She asked if my name was Thirteen. Being the stupid and utterly punch drunk girl who was wiped out from a swim meet I decided to be funny. Sarcastically, I answered yes and she just left it at that. The next day she was in my fifth grade class and she continued to call me Thirteen. As to her nickname, when we were in seventh grade we were working on a big research project together and were going through material and highlighting. However, instead of grabbing the highlighter, Bridget grabbed the navy blue sharpie. I then said, "Well I guess you're not a highlighter anymore." And we laughed. She then asked what she was if not a highlighter. "A darklighter, duh," I replied comically. So from then on I called her Darlighter.

"Well, do you see the boy over there, no there, standing up, yes up up, there you go. That boy." I finally looked to where she was meaning even though she couldn't point.

"Yeah, what about him?" I stared at him for a moment. He was a tall, blond kid with sea foam eyes and a strong nose that looked like it had been broken at some point or another. He was reading something and giving it a hard look, as if he didn't agree with it. Suddenly, as if he knew, he looked up and caught me staring. I smiled awkwardly and hesitantly waved. He smiled a small, but genuine, smile and waved back.

"His name is Benedick King, transfer student from Texas and junior."

"A transfer in the last week of school?" I asked dubiously.

"Apparently, so my sources say, he transferred last month."

"You are always so well informed. One day I will get out of you who your sources are."

"I just like to be informed on all new activity in the school." Bridget grinned wolfishly.

"So what about this new Texas kid?" I asked, running a hand through my blond hair. I'd had it kept short for a few years, but now decided to grow it out a bit. It was hard to get used to it getting in my face all the time.

"It appears he is interested." Bridget said with a sly look. Her pale green eyes always held a minty sparkle in them that always spelled trouble for me and my thinking process. I chuckled.

"What are you now? Yoda? Quit talking in riddles. What's he interested in?" I pulled a piece of gum out of my terribly handcrafted yet much loved Wolverine bag that I had sewn myself. It wasn't dramatic, it just looked normal for me. I unwrapped the gum casually and put it in my mouth.

"He's interested in you," Bridget said with a smirk. I then choked on the gum I recently put in my mouth. Bridget reached over and swatted me on the back.

"Come again?" I asked as I caught my breath again. Dang it, I swallowed my gum.

"He's been asking about you. Apparently he wants to know more."

"Ok, now I definitely disbelieve your sources."

"Well, that's the information, do with it what you want." Bridget sat back and gave a "_that's that"_ look to me. I opened my mouth to protest, but the bell rang.

The rest of the day I was slightly curious. Who was this guy? He certainly was kind of cute but I mean I'd never really noticed him before. School came and went like it always did but tomorrow was the last day of school, therefore that meant that today was the practical last day of school. There wasn't any reason to come on the last day anyway. I was home free now. I walked into the apartment and called out.

"Mom?"

"Yeah, honey?"

"I'm home, I'm just going to head over to the pool for a bit. I have my phone."

"Ok, I've got a deadline so don't worry about me. I'll be holed up here all night with my tea and my headphones to keep me company." I couldn't help but smile. My mother was one strong woman. She'd raised me from birth by herself. She told me Dad died in a boating accident when she was expecting me. It was ironic that the one thing he loved the most, the high seas, killed him.

"Mom," I poked my head into her little office space where she had her Mac up and running in a vector program.

"Yeah, baby?" I smiled.

"Don't get drunk or pregnant." I laughed as I said the oft repeated line. Whenever I would go out the door my mother would caution me with those same words. She turned back toward me in her fancy ergonomic swivel chair. Her black rimmed glasses made her look like some sort of intense reporter. But the smile she gave made her look like my mom.

"Love ya." She said.

"Love ya, too." I answered back as I went to change into my swim suit.

I can't explain the feeling I get when I dive into a pool. The sound of the splash is enough to make me smile, and I make a big splash. I'm not skinny by any stretch of the imagination, but I like to think I am in shape enough to take out a full grown man. This time I just started out with some nice easy warm up laps doing twenty five yards of no breathing and fifty with, alternating breathing sides of course. The people from the pool know my name since I practically live there. When not at practice with Coach Melesa and the rest of the girls, I was usually there just swimming and getting my exercise. There weren't many people at the pool yet, it was still early in the afternoon when all the little kids are getting home from school. The sun shone brightly through the open canopy roof. Since the weather was nice they opened the pool up to the natural world. When the weather isn't so nice, it was a smart feature to put a cover on. The sun warmed the water in places and made waves of warm and cool water throughout the lap pool. This was how I relaxed.

After swimming about a half hour or so, I finally stopped to catch a breath and people watch. Pools are the best place to People Watch, except maybe Disneyland or Six Flags. As I was observing I watched a woman emerge from the women's locker room. Oh my gosh she was beautiful. But from the look on her face, one of smug comfort and showing off, she knew she was flaunting and wasn't afraid to share it. All the male life guards (there was one girl life guard on duty who just rolled her eyes) turned and couldn't help but stare at her. Her perfectly bronzed legs were long and led up to a short cover up that tied in the front like a kimono. She shook out her long blond hair from its ponytail as she made her way to the water's edge. The way she leaned back and gently untied the kimono, revealing a tight fitting bikini and perfectly toned abs and a pair of double Ds, was too much like in the movies. Excuse me while I hurl. Looking up at the girl who was in charge of watching the lap pool, I gave her a look that said _what gives?_ when she looked my way. She just shrugged and rolled her eyes. Alright then, whatever. I did notice, however, that one boy was not ogling at the girl. To my great surprise, it was Benedick King, the kid Bridget had told me about earlier. He just walked over calmly and took over for the girl for his shift. As he took the chair, he kept an eye on me. Feeling awkward I waved a hello and swam off.

I don't know how long I practiced by myself; at least a couple of hours. And all that time Benedick was on the lap pool shift. I found it odd, but hey I'm not running the place. And that busty tramp was still hamming it up over by the zero depth entry. I was well and truly disgusted by the actions of the males falling all over themselves to help her. The funny thing is that I never heard her speak. She'd giggle occasionally, nodd often, but never really spoke two words. An odd one, that chick.

Finally, I could see it was getting late. Time for a warm down. As I swam my laps again I watched out of the corner of my eye. Our friend Mr. King got down from his chair and began sweeping down the pool. Hmm, so he's not just watching me. Interesting. I finished a 100 meter warm down, pulled off my goggles, and then began to take off my cap. It felt really good to go under the water and let my hair just trail out behind me. Coming up, I brushed the water from my eyes; more out of habit than pestilence. Suddenly there was a voice behind me. This voice was different than any normal human voice I'd ever heard of. The ethereal quality was soft and voluptuous, but to me a red flag suddenly went off in my head.

"Excuse me?" I asked as I turned around. There was no one else in the pool area besides me, Benedick, and the tramp. The tramp was talking to me. I noticed she wore heavy shades even though it was the twilight hour. Slowly, she took off the glasses to reveal a pair of radioactive yellow eyes that glowed maliciously.

"Holy heck!" I nearly yelled, as I pushed away from the wall back to the middle of the pool. She smiled wickedly, revealing a mouth full of perfect pearly whites.

"We know what you are, Serenity." The tramp said. The voice, that calming and beautiful voice, almost pulled me back to her. But then I wondered.

"How do you know my name?" I asked.

"We know everything about you, daughter of the seas!" Suddenly the girl pulled off her white swim suit cover up revealing a pair of feathery white wings.

"Holy crap!" I yelled and dove into the water. I heard the unearthly song this girl sang, even under the water. I tried to plug my ears, hold my breath, and swim at the same time, but it wasn't happening. Suddenly, I felt a tight hand grip around my foot, yanking me through the water. Unable to catch a breath, my body went into panic mode. The black tunnel appeared in my vision. That hand yanked me from the water by my ankle, pulling me out upside down. Spewing water from me as fast as possible I tried to look up and see what the heck was going on. That girl… she was … flying! I couldn't believe my own eyes. I've died. That's what. I've died and now I'm hallucinating that an angel is taking me to heaven. I must have hit my head on the bottom and drowned, because this is not real!

The black tunnel had almost enveloped me. I couldn't control my body any longer. I laid back limp in the arms of this winged creature. The last thing I remember before blacking out was… a tail? Yeah, a long scaly blue tail. Like a fish, you know? I guess that is what you get when you swim for ten years.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

I felt good. Something that didn't happen often. Content. Calm. My body didn't even feel sore, which I forgot what that felt like a long time ago. Somewhere nearby I heard a bird tweet as it flew by. Off in the distance I could almost feel the waves I heard crashing into a beach. I didn't dare open my eyes, fearing the feeling of peace would disappear. Rolling over, I felt the corners of my mouth turn up in a small smile.

"Serenity?" A far off voice spoke up. I took a deep breath and sighed. Yeah I know its my name, but the word itself is nice to hear. I heard it again, louder and closer this time.

"Hmph?" I responded, digging my self deeper into the feathery pillow. Wait a second. Who was talking to my anyway? I slowly opened one eye to search for my pursuer. A face swam into view. Male, blond hair, misshapen nose, my eyes continued to focus. Then I saw his eyes. Those bright, phosphorescent green eyes!

"What?" I suddenly jumped up, startled. Looking around I realized I didn't know where in the world I was. I jumped out of the bed I was in, feeling the soft nightgown brush the skin of my thighs.

"Where am I?" I demanded. The boy turned towards me. It was Benedick. But he wasn't Benedick. His eyes glowed radioactively for one thing. And his skin! He wore a vest that revealed his bare arms that looked tattooed, but these images were Celtic in design that moved like waves when he moved.

"Calm down," Benedick held his hands out cautiously, warning the wild animal of his presence.

"No I will not! Not until you tell me who you are and where the hell I am!" I yelled shrilly. Benedick advanced slowly, his calm was almost insulting to me.

"Sera, you need to sit back down, you hit your head." I was then acutely aware of the pounding that had erupted in my ears, stemming from a knifing pain in my brain. I swayed on the spot as I tried to catch my breath. Try as I might, I couldn't stay standing. My legs buckled beneath me without my consent, I was going down. I leaned heavily on a pillar that stood near me, me holding onto my head just to keep it from blowing off of my shoulders. Suddenly, Benedick was by my side, supporting me. He helped me back into the bed. I sat back, leaning my head on the rounded headboard, and breathed deeply; slowly I felt the ebb of my headache.

"That's better isn't it?" Benedick asked. I noticed he had an accent, a British one.

"Wha- what? How…?"

"Shh, I'll explain everything. Just rest your head."

"But what are you…?" I asked.

"Shut up and I can tell you, ok pumpkin?" Benedick snapped playfully. I closed my mouth.

"My name is Benedick King."

"I know." I said. Befuddlement clouded his green eyes.

"You do?"

"Yeah. Continue…" I pushed.

"I am your handler."

"Handler? Why do I need a handler? Never mind, answer the other question." I closed my eyes as more questions began to pop up.

"I'm getting there. We are here at Camp Hybrid, on the coast of California."

"California? How did I get here?"

"After your little incident we had to bring you here to treat you."

"Incident?"

"That siren that attacked you." He explained patiently. Suddenly, my memory flooded back from the attack.

"That was a siren? What's that mean? Wait, what's Camp Hybrid?" I asked, confused beyond measure.

"A safe haven for half bloods."

"Half bloods? What do you mean half bloods?"

"Half human, half god, or we call them demigods sometimes." Benedick was calm and collected, the complete opposite of me.

"So what's all that got to do with me? Why am _I_ here?" My head was beginning to hurt from the questions and not the impact.

"Apparently, you are a half blood." Crickets.

"Beg your pardon?"

"You never knew your father, right?"

"Yeah, but…" It hit me, like a speeding train late for its arrival. "So you mean…? I'm a…"

"Yep,"

"I'm really a-a-a-"

"Oh yeah."

"But… who's my dad? What's he got to do with this?"

"You see that's the kicker. We're not exactly sure. We've narrowed it down to all the male gods though." He seemed optimistic. I wasn't impressed.

"Well that was smart." I answered sarcastically.

"We'd have to go through with the Claiming Ceremony to find out for sure. But we felt it better to wait until you recovered to on with it." I fell silent. All this was coming way too fast for me.

"I need to talk to my mom." I announced.

"She's here, downstairs in the main office I think. Once the healers clear you I'll send her up." He said with a pleasant expression. I shook my head.

"I want to talk to her now!" I pressed. With a deep breath I stood up and hurriedly walked to the door. I made it out the door way, but then my head began to throb again. I didn't care though. Benedick grabbed my arm and tried to pull me back.

"Wait! You can't go yet." He said, a little more emotion in his voice. I turned around and walked right up to his face, glaring daggers at him.

"Watch me!" Throwing my arm out of his grip, I marched down the hall and descended the stairs, painfully at that. He followed me, but stayed back a good distance. The house looked like an oversized bed and breakfast inn. A door near the entrance hall was marked with a sign that held ancient greek writing. Luckily, I'd learned how to read that at summer came one year when I was 13. I'd learned it exceptionally fast, according to my counselor. The sign read "Main Office". I didn't even knock, just pushed the door wide open. Sitting inside was my mother, her eyes red and wet. Across a desk was a young woman with fiery red hair pulled back into a curly ponytail.

"Mom?" I asked.

"Come in, Serenity. We were just talking about you." The young woman said calmly, even pleasantly. I ignored her, yes I know its rude but I had just gotten hit in the head.

"Is it true, Mom? Am I…I… a…." I couldn't even spit it out. My mother's eyes filled with a fresh bout of tears.

"Yes, Serenity," The other woman answered for her, "it's true. You are a daughter of a god." My head overtook me, both with this new revelation and the pain. I fainted. But I don't remember hitting the floor.

"There you are, up you go." I heard a male voice in my ear as I was sat down in a chair.

"Is she all right?" I heard my mother ask somewhere.

"Mother, I'm fine." I murmured as I opened my eyes. Benedick pulled his arms out from around me where he had been situating me in the chair.

"Here, eat this." The young redheaded woman appeared next to me, holding out what looked like a chocolate bar. I looked up at her quizzically. "It's just chocolate. It'll help you get off of that adrenaline crash." I shrugged and took the bar from her. I was able to get a clearer picture of her. From just first glance I saw that she was wearing something comfortable. I could see the designer label on her hipster jeans that fit her a little too well. Between her belt around her hips and the hemline on her shirt there was a strip of skin that peeked through. A black tee shirt, emblazoned with the Nike swoosh hugged her curves just right. Her nails were a deep purple with sparkly black polka dots. Her eyes were like two gold medals, flashing in the glow of a victory. With a smile she stepped back and sat on the edge of the desk, letting me see my mom who was sitting near me in a chair like mine.

"Honey, there are a few things we need to talk about." My mom said, pain evident in her eyes.

"But that will have to wait," The woman interjected. "We need to go through with the _Axiosi_ process first. It will make it easier to explain it all to her." My mother nodded and deferred.

"Who are you?" I asked. I know that sounded rude, but I was not in the mood for pleasantries. The woman was surprised for maybe a nanosecond but then the left corner of her mouth curved upward.

"I am Nike, goddess of victory." She stated.

"Goddess?" I asked, dubiously. "Okay, not to be rude but isn't that a little bit of the 'holier than thou' mentality?" Nike was not impressed, nor was she angry. I read annoyance on her face but her eyes held something I couldn't put a finger on.

"Oh really?" She challenged me. "I'm not going to prove anything to you. You will come to know the truth as you learn. For now, call me N." I frowned in question. "Now, we need to get you ready for the _Axiosi_ ceremony. Follow me." I did as I was told. We all followed her out of the main office and down a set of stairs to what looked like it was once a cellar but now converted to something else. N opened up an oak wardrobe which contained a mass of white fabric. Looking through a couple, she finally chose one and pulled it out.

"Put this on." She said as she tossed me the garment. It was a short white tunic with holes for a head and arms. I shrugged and pulled off my nightgown. Benedick, who I forgot was even there, cleared his throat awkwardly and turned his back to me. I shrugged and pulled the tent dress over my head. The thing looked like a sheet you wear for Halloween as a ghost. But this had arm holes and a head hole. Standing in front of my mother I raised an eyebrow. Suddenly, N's hands appeared underneath my arms; one hand holding a wad of golden string in it. With a few expert turns the string was tightened around my chest, right under my bust. Ok, this looked a little better, I have to admit. N stood in front of me and assessed me. With gentle hands, she fixed my mussed up bed hair so there was a part in it and it lay straight, somewhat.

"Alright, you're all set."

"Set for what?" I asked, as she turned me to face a gilded door. N opened it up and gave me a little push in.

"Good luck, it isn't a test. Just be yourself."

"What?" And with that she pushed me fully through the door and shut it behind me. The room was dark, darker than dark.

"Uh… hello?" I called out. "Anybody in here?" Still no answer. I took a few steps forward. I became aware that the hardwood floors I had just been standing on had turned to soft dirt. I wiggled my toes in it, suddenly nervous about what I was facing. Suddenly, I heard whispers; in the air, all around me. I couldn't make anything out.

"Hello?" I called again. No one answered but the whispers continued. A slight breeze picked up, and at the far end of the room I saw a faint blue light. Moving closer I saw it get brighter and brighter. Looking around, I searched desperately to find the source of the whispers.

"Listen, I don't mean to be rude, but I got pushed in here and they said something about some ceremony so if you could help me out I would really appreciate that." I called out to the voices. The blue light grew even brighter, making me squint to look at it. I couldn't keep my eyes open, I tried to see what was going on by shielding my eyes with my hand but I still had to turn away. The light dissipated, but there was still a faint light emanating from something in front of me.

I was suddenly away of a personage in front of me. Finally looking, I took in the sight. A man, looking about middle aged with brown black hair and a goatee with luminescent blue-green eyes. The guy stood about 6'4, about 250 pounds with broad shoulders and strong arms.

In the dim light if it was hard to make out everything about him. I did, however, catch the wink he threw in my direction. In a moment, my mind stopped working on all its other tasks and I just stared at the guy.

"Dad?" I whispered. A bashful smile crossed lips and he looked down for a moment. This is him? Is it real? My brain wanted to explode with questions. Suddenly, in my head I heard a voice.

"Hold out your hand, child." Looking around, I searched for the source, but in my heart I knew what it was. My eyes locked onto his. I saw something familiar. With a shock, I realized that I have seen those eyes every time I look in the mirror. They were mine.

I did as he told, his deep rumbling voice still resonating in my head. Tentatively, I held my arm out towards him. With great care and gentle hands, he took my arm and wrapped his gigantic hands around it. His tanned skin made my own look pasty and unhealthy.

"Hold onto me." His voice came again in my head. My fingers looked like spindles wrapped halfway around his thick forearm. After I had fixated my hand, I looked to him, wondering what next. With a soft smile, he studied my face.

"Take a deep breath." He instructed. Breathing in deeply, I caught the faint scent of the ocean. Whether it was from outside or from just from him, I couldn't be sure.

Suddenly, there was a searing pain etched in the vulnerable flesh of my underarm. All that air I had just taken in was gone in a whoosh. It was hard to endure the pain without screaming, but as big a baby I was I didn't cry. I hissed though. I made every other sound of pain as I sucked air past my tight lips and set jaw. Take it, I told myself, take it. I felt my nails dig into his arm, but he didn't seem to mind.

At the point where I thought I couldn't take it anymore, it all stopped. I hadn't noticed the glowing blue light coming from my arm until it began to fade away. I stood there panting, confused, even angry. Dad let go and leaned down so we were eye to eye. Gently, he rested his hand on my cheek.

"Storm's a-comin', batten down the hatches and get ready." He actually spoke this time, I watched as his lips moved in perfect synchronization with the sound emitting from them. With that, he stepped back and was engulfed with that blue light again and was gone. Blackness, inky, sucking blackness filled the room and filled me. With my arms out in front of me, I began my search for the door. To my great surprise, the door was right behind me. Putting my hand on the door handle I hesitated. I couldn't help but look back. I'd never seen my father, in my 17 years of life. I guess I should be happy that I was a daughter of a god. But I wasn't. In fact, I was downright upset. Upset at the far too long list of event and circumstances _that_ man deprived me of, of the years of heart wrenching sideline watchings of other little girls spending time with their daddies. But most of all, I was mad at him for my mother. He left her, alone and pregnant with me. He broke her heart and I don't know if I can forgive someone who hurts my mother or me.

When I walked through the door, three expectant faces met me. My spirits were darkening by the second. I shut the door behind me. For the first time, in this _enlightened_ state, I looked at my mom. Everyone said I looked a lot like her, same hair same face, but taller and a bit sharper (don't tell her I said that). I realized I had just now begun to hate the characteristics I shared with my father. Oh, which reminds me, I don't even know which god is my father. I saw him, sure, but did he tell me who he was? No. Did he explain himself? No. Did he give any indication that he loved me? No… well there was something close to affection when he gave me that warning. Speaking of which, what was that all about? I don't understand him.

"So?" N asked as she stood up. Holding out her hand expectantly, I had a feeling I knew what she wanted to see. Holding out my arm, she took it a little roughly and held it to the light. There on the underside of my arm appeared a shimmering blue symbol. At closer inspection, I saw it was the image of a wave, circumscribed.

"Mmm, just as I suspected." She said aloud. "Here," She showed my arm to my mother. Mom voiced what I was thinking.

"And what does that mean?"

"Congratulations, you have a child with Poseidon, god of the seas." N said with a hint of boredom. Poseidon? Holy crap.

"Okay, lets get you upstairs, we'll get you situated and get this all straightened out." I walked in a heated haze as we ascended the stairs.

"Hey," said a far away voice. I didn't stop but felt a hand around my wrist. "Are you ok?" Benedick asked. I could feel my eyes narrow at him.

"Oh yes, I am just peachy keen because I found out that my father, who is a god by the way, left my mother alone not because he died but because he had 'duties'. This whole thing is whacked out." I felt my voice begin to rise. "Not to mention all these secrets kept from me. No thanks to you." I spat. Benedick was quiet and looked down for a moment. Gosh dang it, this is why I only have one friend. I suck at being nice.

"I'm sorry." I finally apologized. "I've just… I just got a lot on my mind right now."

"I understand. I know exactly what you're feeling."

"You do?" I asked. "Who's son are you?"

"Not the son of a god, no." He then led me up the stairs so we could catch up with my mom and N. "You see I grew up normally with my parents in Bristol, but then on my thirteenth birthday I began sprouting scales." My eyes widened.

"Scales?" I asked.

"Yeah,"

"So are you like some sea monster or something like that?" I asked, a little nervous. Benedick only laughed.

"No, no, not quite that far."

"Then what are you?" I finally asked. He looked at me funny.

"You don't remember?"

"Remember what?"

"Wow, you really hit your head hard."

"Apparently. So refresh my memory." We stopped for a moment, I wanted the truth out of him.

"I'm part Merfolk." He said, his face deadly serious.

"What?" I asked, giggling kind of. "Merfolk? As in have faces and bodies of humans and fish tails?" I felt myself begin to laugh harder. "The only mermaid I am familiar with wears a sea shell bra and sings of land." I could see he wasn't as amused as I was. "…so you'll forgive me." I added on quickly. Benedick just folded his arms.

"Well, no offense, but the only child of Poseidon I'm familiar with has a long face, whinnies, and craps her tail every hour on the hour." With that he smirked and walked off. My jaw dropped. Okay, I may have deserved that one. Touche, my friend, touché. I ran to catch up to him.

"Listen," I started, "Can we just rewind and start over?" I asked as we approached the main office again. I held out my hand to him. "Hi, I'm Serenity, call me Sera." He just stopped and stared at me. "Now its your turn." I point to my waiting hand. "Usually, when a person introduces them-self the other person does so as well then they shake hands." Pursing his lips, he unfolded his arms.

"My name is Benedick, call me Ben. But I don't shake hands like that." Reaching out, he grabbed my forearm (kind of like how Dad did in that room back there) and held it straight out. I'm not going to lie, when he did it, it was kind of hot. I smiled.

"Very nice to meet you, Ben. Let's be friends. I promise to be your friend no matter what happens. Even if you are a jerk to me."

"And I," Ben dipped his head respectfully, "am honored to meet you, Sera. I promise to be your friend too. Even if you are a jack ass." He winked as he opened the door to the main office. This could be an interesting friendship.


	3. Chapter 3

** Chapter 3**

About an hour later I had gotten my stuff, filled out all the paperwork and was sitting in the Poseidon cabin. The cabin was on the beach, partway over the water on stilts. There was a water fall that fed from the ocean outside into the cabin. The place was not bad at all. Next to my cabin was the Athena cabin, made look like the Parthenon in the front. Beside that was the Hades cabin, then Zeus, Demeter, Aphrodite, Apollo, Hera, Ares, Hephaestus, Hermes, and Dionysus. There were other cabins for the "minor gods" but those were in the row behind. I have to say though; I was pretty lonely there in my own cabin. I was the only one there that summer. Ben had said there were others but they weren't there all the time.

Walking over to my cabin was the strangest thing. I walked past archery stations, an armory, even a forgery, then the arena was alive with chariot race practices, and the whole place was buzzing with kids. What really got me what that all these kids were half gods, like me. On our way I walked past the Aphrodite cabin which had a hot tub on its front porch. Three guys were sitting in there, three amazingly gorgeous guys, and they were splashing back and forth just as all boys would. Ben pointed out each cabin as we passed it. Let me interject and say these were only referred to as _cabins_, they were more like mansions. We passed the Ares bunch where there were a few kids playing a high stakes poker game for certain gold coins.

"What are those things?" I'd asked Ben.

"Drachmas, official currency of the Olympians."

When we hit the beach I looked out at my cabin, it looked like a Bahamas beach house, complete with a paddle boat tethered to the back dock. I actually had sighed out loud at the sight of it. My mother had smiled at me then gave me a quick squeeze and we headed inside.

Ben left a little while ago to go take my measurements to the forgery to get my armor made up. That left my mom and me to unpack. And talk. I sat on the edge of the queen sized bed.

"Mom?" I asked. My mom didn't need to answer, she just turned toward me and nodded. "Mom, how did you and Dad meet? Did you ever know that he was…a… a Greek god?"

"Oh no, I never would have thought of that." She laughed, but then was sobered by memories. "Well, I was in school here in California at one of the graphic art centers. My friends and I loved going out to the beach early Saturday mornings to catch the waves-,"

"And look at the surfers," I finished for her.

"No! Well… ok, yeah we did." I am so glad my mom is enough of my friend to admit this to me. "We went out one morning, oh it was so nice that day, and started surfing when I got separated by a riptide. I remember being so scared and wondering how to get back to the shore when I got crushed by a wave of the incoming tide. Next thing I knew, I was getting dragged up on the beach, waterlogged and choking, by one of the other surfers." My mother's face turned kind of… girly? Yeah, like when a young girl sees her crush, swooning. "He asked me if I was okay, I told him I was but he didn't believe me, insisted that he take me back to my friends and make sure I was settled. When I found my friends again, they all thought I was crazy for not pretending to be dead and get mouth-to-mouth from him. I did get a date out of that though. His reasoning was that if I was going to let him save my life, then I should buy him dinner. So I did, and I had a blast. Found out he was the captain of a ship that shuttled goods from Hawaii to the west coast. I don't know what it was about him, but I just felt… safe, comfortable."

"Like you're invincible?" I added.

"Yeah. We dated for two months, then it got kind of awkward when… when he asked me to sleep with him." I could tell this was getting harder and harder for her to admit. "I refused, told him I wanted to be married first. We continued to date and he asked me the same question twice more, the third time we came so dangerously close. But I still told him I wanted to be married. So he went and rounded up a priest, we eloped and got married quickly. He got himself a steady job as a tour boat driver as I was finishing up my final year of schooling. He was gone a few weeks every month on big tours of the coast, or so I thought. We had plans to move to Hawaii where he could open up his own boat shop and build and fix boats for the rest of his life and I could design surf boards and sell them. That was what we had in mind. Then we found out I was pregnant with you." I could see tears welling in her eyes. "He'd never seemed happier than when I told him of you." Anger flashed through my heart. He was lying! All he'd wanted was the sex. "When it was getting close to my graduation he said he'd take one last charter up the coast and then he'd be back for my graduation and his baby. But on that trip, they told me his boat got caught in a riptide and dashed against some shallow shoals. The boat had exploded on impact." Tears began to fall now. "I will never forget the day when they told me he was gone." Ooh, I am beginning to hate the man now. "That was the summer from hell. I graduated, seven months pregnant, single, and no job aspects on the horizon. And to think he was lounging around on some cloud." I wrapped my arms around my mom as she began to cry.

"Don't you hate him, Mom? Don't you wish you'd never met him?" I asked. She sat up and glared angrily at me.

"No, I do not hate him. I'm glad I met him. Because if not, then I would never have had you. You are my ultimate treasure." We sat there together, both of us crying now, for a while just letting it all out.

"I've got to go now." My mom finally said.

"What?"

"I can't stay here. I'm not a half blood or magical creature or whatever those things are. If I stay any longer than twenty four hours then I get taken out by force."

"By force?"

"I don't know what that means, but I really don't want to find out." She stood up and wiped her eyes. "Come on, walk me to the exit." She beckoned me up.

"So, I'm being left here? Alone?"

"Yes, Nike believes you'll want to stay here so you're not attacked anymore."

"She doesn't know what I want." I protested.

"But I know what you need." My mom stated as she took my hand. "This'll be good for you. An opportunity you're so lucky to get." I was quiet for a second.

"Do cell phones work here?" I asked.

"No, but there's another way for you to contact me. Nike says something about Isis and water; she'll explain it all to you later." I still clung to my mother, not because I was scared for me, but I was afraid for her. I never liked leaving her alone too long. We came to the entrance and I saw my mom's car parked out in the dirt parking lot.

"I will be back to pick you up a week before school starts." My mom announced.

"What? That's two whole months, more than that. What do you expect me to do here for that long?" I objected.

"They have a schedule planned out for you." I turned away and felt tears stinging my eyes. "Honey, will you look at me?" My mom asked. I did and saw her smiling face there.

"You are the daughter of one of the _Greek gods_. You can find out about your past. Have an adventure. Meet a boy. Kiss him. Just… try something new." She pulled me into a hug and I buried my head in her shoulder. I don't like change. Its not something I am used to. Mom pulled my head out and planted a light kiss on my forehead.

"Now," she said quietly, "be brave." With that she got into her car. Standing by entrance, I watched as she drove away. This pain was far worse than what I felt when I got the tattoo thing. This one was much deeper, the pain of loss.

"Sera!" I heard my name called but didn't answer. I only sat with my back to one of the big wooden poles and threw little rocks at a tree across the way.

"Sera? Where are you?" It came again. I can almost hit that knot with deadly accuracy each time I hurl the pebbles.

"Sera?" I heard Ben's feet crunch through the gravel path slow from a run to a walk. "What are you doing out here? You're missing dinner."

"I'm not hungry."

"Yeah, and I'm one of Aphrodite's." Ben said, arms akimbo. "Come on, you get your own table and everything. Well, you have to share it with me, but still that's just like having it to yourself."

"I don't want to go." I said stubbornly, not bothering to look up.

"Come on, what's the matter with you?" He asked. Why was that accent getting on my nerves? He took a seat next to me.

"Nothing," I said dully, taking aim and throwing another rock.

"Nothing makes nothing, and you have something, so it can't be nothing. What's the matter?" Just then my stomach growled really loudly. Thanks, I really needed that. Why can't my body and my brain stay on the same wavelength?

"What am I supposed to do? I'm not a hero. This camp is to make people tough and that's not me. I can't do this." Ben chuckled and took my hand in his.

"Listen, I know this is all really hard for you. I have been there, remember?" I still didn't respond, although my eyes did. I cursed every hot angry tear that fell from my cheeks. Ben wrapped an arm around my shoulders. "You feel like this is all bigger than you, like this is just a mean joke. Its too much to take at one time. You wonder how you are ever going to live up to it. Its like this is the end of your life as you know it." I sniffled, he had described exactly what was going on in my head. "But its not." We sat there for another few minutes while I composed myself.

"I think I'm a little hungry now." I said. Ben smiled then got up. His hand suddenly appeared by me again.

"Want a hand?" He asked. I took it and he led me to dinner.

When we got there everyone else had finished, there were a few stragglers at the other tables. Ben showed me how the food system worked. I was astonished at the perfection of the steak I got. It was even well done, just as I like it. I downed five glasses of lemonade and another four of root beer. Not gonna lie, meal times were going to be excellent these next two months. Throughout the meal, Ben pointed out the different people. There was Regina from Demeter, Collin from Hermes, Tavia from Aphrodite, and a whole bunch of others. I saw another kid eating by herself. She had a short pixie cut, with silver tips. Her eyes were almond shaped, but still hawk-like.

"Who's she?" I asked.

"Thats Keira, daughter of Hades."

"She looks… interesting." I observed. Ben laughed.

"You have no idea." Another kid walked over and saw Ben.

"Ben? Dude!" He came over and Ben was surprised. The boy looked ready for anything. He wore a vest that carried a wicked assortment of knives, on his wrist there was also a pack of Chinese throwing stars. Around his thigh was a strap that held what looked like a gun holster but instead of a gun there was a pouch of something else in it.

"Dirk?" They shook hands, or rather did Ben's little arm hold thingy.

"Ben, we thought you'd left us for good, Bro."

"Ah, you can't get rid of me that easy."

"Good thing too." Dirk turned his attention to me. "And who's the rookie?" I beg his pardon? He looked not a day over 15, possibly 16. Who's he calling rookie?

"This is Sera Savage, daughter of Poseidon. She's my charge." Dirk's eyes widened.

"Charge? So you're a handler now? Nice job, man." He turned to me. "Poseidon, eh? We haven't had one of those here for a long time." He shook my hand. "I'm Dirk Russel, son of Ares." Ares, ooh he was a scary dude. I think they should rename him that's a little more menacing and fitting of his character..

"Nice to meet you." I said. Somebody called Dirk and he groaned.

"I can't seem to get a break from all of this. Somebody wants me to check their skills with a sword." From off of his back, he pulled a shining sword from some sort of strap on his back. "I'm glad you came back, man." Dirk slapped Ben on the back. With a gentleman's air, he took my hand and kissed the top with flourish. "Farewell, Lady of the Water." Ben pulled my hand away from Dirk.

"All right, all right, you little charmer." Ben broke us up and Dirk laughed as he rushed off to join his friends.

After I was done Ben instructed me on the proper way to sacrifice my food to the gods and then it was time to go get ready for bed. Of course, Poseidon's cabin is the one that is farthest from the main encampment, probably their striving for the ocean side feature. We talked mostly as we walked over.

"So your parents are both Merfolk?" I asked. Ben finished chewing his roll he'd swiped from dinner.

"No… dad's a mortal, mum's a mermaid. Her clan is ruling the British Isles right now."

"Oh, so how is it that you can have two legs and a tail?" I asked.

"Well you see, if we are out of the water for a long enough period of time our tails turn into legs anyway. Since I am only half merman, I can do it at will. But at night I have to sleep in my tail under water."

"Ah I see. So no more sleeping with the guys?" I asked playfully.

"Nope, no I'm sleeping with you now." He declared. I snorted when I saw he didn't realize what he said.

"What's so-," And suddenly he got it.

"Oh no-no- I didn't mean … mean that." He stumbled over his words.

"Its alright, I know what you meant."

We got inside and we made our way to the part of the house where the waves rolled through the water up inside. We sat on the side of the opening and stuck my feet in. Oh that water felt so good! I missed it.

"So what is it they have planned for me?" I asked. Ben stood up.

"Well, tomorrow will be a Monday so we'll start you off with Archery and chariots." He suddenly was unbuttoning his vest and pulling it off. "Then if you do well in those we can start you on Battle Strategy and your war history." He pulled off the vest and left it in a pile by the side. He then moved on to unbuttoning his pants. I was slightly alarmed but waited for him to finish speaking. "Then… if that all goes well, we can get you into your sword fighting training and weaponry." My jaw was on the floor. This boy before me had a perfect six pack, complete with fully toned intercostals and obliques. I've never been one for boys, but man, this guy looked pretty dang good.

"Uh-huh… looks good- I mean sounds good." I shook myself out. Ben almost took off his boxer shorts when he suddenly stopped.

"Serenity, tsk tsk tsk." He shook his finger at me.

"Oh! Sorry!" I blushed as I turned around. I heard him slip the shorts off and then a splash as he hopped into the water. Which, by the way, was freezing. It's the Pacific Ocean, what do you expect? I suddenly heard a _whoosh_ as if there was swirling water.

"Okay, you can look now." I heard him call as soon as he pushed his head up out of the water. Turning around I was astonished as I saw Ben swimming over. His torso was the same, the designs on his arms seemed to glow even more now. The trippy thing about him was his tail. It was about five feet long, ending in an iridescent green-blue fin.

"Whoa!" I exclaimed as I leaned down to look. Ben's lips parted in a proud smile. He swam up closer to me and leaned his hands on the deck I was sitting on. Instead of his regular hands, I saw the five fingers but there was slight webbing between them, and spines running up the sides of his wrists. I couldn't help but stare in awe at the spectacle before me.

"What do you think?" Ben asked. I couldn't help but grin in ecstasy. I think I turned four again and I was watching a movie of some sort.

"What do I think? Its awesome! I feel like this is some sort of dream." I lay down on my stomach so I could get a little closer. I felt Ben's eyes on me for a moment. He moved closer and his fin breached the top of the water.

"You wanna touch it?" He whispered. I looked at him, surprised.

"What?"

"Go ahead, touch it." He raised the main part of his tail out of the water. Reaching down hesitantly, I came within inches and stopped, giggling.

"Touch it, you big baby!" Ben laughed. Grabbing my hand, he pulled it down until it contacted with the tail. It was slimy, yet still slick and smooth.

"Eww!" I squealed in laughter. "Its… its… I don't know what to call it."

"It's a tail." Ben said happily. I have to say I am glad to have one friend here. And he's a merman. Bonus.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

I'm not even going to discuss my first three days here. I crawled into my lovely bed and sighed contented relief. No one was chasing me, no one was yelling at me, no one was trying to knock my brains out. I lay my head back and closed my eyes, ready for sleep.

"Okay, Sera, today you did great." Oh crap, its _him._ I had grown to dislike his apparent optimism in my "progress" that I had made. I just groaned and pulled the fluffy sheets over my head.

"Go away! I don't want to hear anything from you." I shouted through my pillows and blankets.

"Oh come on, you don't mean that." Ben said as I felt him sit on the edge of the bed.

"Oh do I?" I said as I pulled my head out to look at him. "I have had the mother of all bad days and all I want is some peace and quiet, is that too much to ask from the Little Mermaid?" I said facetiously. It's a good thing that Ben's sense of humor is off kilter, or maybe it isn't a good thing. My feeble attempt at insulting him made him laugh out loud.

"Oh Sera," He shook his head as he pulled out a pad of paper; my schedule he kept with him. "Now, tomorrow you start your sword practice as well as martial arts training. You have you're armor?" He asked. The way that British accent used different intonations kind of bugged me tonight.

"Yes," I grumbled.

"Good, then I will get you a leather vest to wear for the sword fighting and you can wear the armor for the martial arts." He made a small note on his piece of paper. He started to go on about the next week's schedule, making sure I knew of all the changes and the locations. Too bad I had already fallen asleep.

Waking up the next morning, my body ached like it always did in the mornings. Sitting up was extremely painful. I hobbled over and made my way to the shower. Splashes were coming from the indoor beach. Ben, it had to be. I quietly crept by, I don't know why though. Maybe because I didn't want him to see me and tell me to go get dressed and get out to breakfast. Suddenly I heard him hiss, painfully. Stopping, I crept to the wall and peeked around. Lying on his stomach, Ben buried his face in one of the plush pillows and screamed. I watched as his iridescent white and green tail began to split into two separate entities. I bit my lip as I fought myself fiercely, I fought the urge to run to his side to make sure he was all right. Yet I was so horrified by the spectacle before me I was frozen on the spot. Once his legs had fully formed, his body relaxed and I noticed the sweat that had broken out over his pale skin. The way his chest's heaves decelerated was almost a relief to me. I almost didn't realize he was stark naked until he began to stand up. Instantly, I turned around and began to creep back over to the shower again.

This was crazy. This was absolutely ludicrous. To think that a mere four days earlier the biggest concern on my list was "when's school going to end". Now that seems like a lifetime away. I don't know how I came to be here. Standing there in the shower, I looked down at my under arm. The blue wave tattoo was still there but it had faded tremendously, looking like someone's Crayola markers after a walk in the rain. Poseidon's mark. One of the "Big Three", or so I've learned in the past few days. Why me? Well, now I know where I get my uncanny ability to swim from. Maybe there's a reason I love swimming. Maybe through some great twist of fate my father _made_ me love the water and everything about it. That thought scared me. But I couldn't exactly just stop loving swimming instantly. In fact I longed to swim right then. My head swirled with questions just like the steam that swirled around my head from the shower.

Getting in the water my worries were suddenly soothed. The water cleared my head as the water fell over my scalp and shoulders. Nope, I wasn't giving up water just because I wanted to spite my father. I'd have to find an alternative method of revenge it seemed. Finishing up, I toweled off and went to get dressed. Today was battle practice day. I pulled on my under armour shirt over a sports bra, no use being uncomfortable while wearing the protective gear. A few days earlier, Ben had taken my measurements and given them to the forges so they could make me a breastplate and all that jazz, but I couldn't use that stuff yet. For now I had to settle for a thick leather vest that, I'll be quiet honest, made me feel really hot in it. In both ways, to be frank. I grabbed my brush and ran it through my hair as I walked out the front door. I ran smack into Ben.

"Umph!" I caught smack in the jaw when I rammed into his shoulder.

"Good morning, Princess." I groaned. There was that name again. He seemed to think I was accustomed to being treated like a princess. I didn't. But he was amused when I complained about all the training. He told me, "What do you want to be doing? Sitting on your high horse waving to your subjects? Or perhaps have them feed grapes to you by hand? Blimey, you'd think you were the heir apparent to the throne." He had turned it into a pet name for me now. Great.

"Good mornin'," I replied.

"Ready for today?" He asked as we began walking to the dining area.

"As I'll ever be. Is today going to hurt as much?" I asked. Ben had a strange look flicker across his face, but before I could identify it, it was gone.

"Uh… no."

"No? Really?" I asked. Ben shook his head.

"No." That gave me hope. Maybe I was getting into some more civilized areas of practice.

Is it fate that I must always have my… butt (I almost let loose a more colorful word) handed to me every time I attempt to do any of this stuff? Quick recap for you: I got shot with a practice arrow… in the butt. I was bruised from the Hephaestus's kid in the tae kwan do or whatever they called it. I seriously thought sword fighting was going to be the death of me. Ben had tried to prepare me, but what good would that do? All this combat training is kicking my sorry butt and it sucks royally!

The sword master was a centaur names Atheros (yeah, there are centaurs and satyrs and stuff like that. My day just keeps getting better). He was a very large, very dangerous looking black stallion with tanned skin and sleek black hair he kept in a braid down his back. He might have been good looking if not for the sharp look in his eyes and the lethal edges of his cheeks. I got put with the first years. We all ranged in age from seven to eighteen, I was the third oldest in the pack apparently.

"Line up!" Atheros shouted. We all stopped talking and lined up in a haphazard line.

"No, no, no, by seniority." When we didn't move, he sighed exasperatedly. "Line up oldest to youngest." Okay, now I get it. I was going to crack a military joke but decided to stay quiet after catching one of the knifing stares from Atheros. As soon as we were set, Atheros instructed us to stand at attention for another moment until he returned. As soon as he left though, we all relaxed and began talking. The boy next to me turned to me.

"Hey, I'm Trip, son of Apollo. You're new here, right?" I gave him a look. Weren't we all new here? Hence the name first years?

"Forgive me, but aren't you too?" I asked after nodding an affirmative.

"Me?" He pointed to himself using a thumb. "Nah, technically I'm a third year. I haven't been able to take sword training because the last two summers I had broken a few fingers and toes during training season."

"How old are you?" I asked.

"Just turned 18 in April. I can now officially buy dry ice and rockets myself." I got a sort of hippie mentality out of him. "So, you have a name or should I make one up for you?"

"Oh, its Sera." I said quickly.

"Sera, no way, that's the name I was gonna make up for you." As soon as he said this I felt my eyes roll.

"You stole that from Star Trek."

"Oho! Science fiction fanatic, huh? Favorite movie?"

"Terminator,"

"Favorite book?"

"Heir to the Empire, Timothy Zahn."

"Star Wars?"

"Movies, tv, and expanded universe."

"My Hero," He smiled, flashing a rather gorgeous grin that showed he had a dimple in his left cheek. Suddenly, I was beginning to notice how dang good looking his was. "So, which cabin do you belong to?" That I guess was the polite way to ask, "Which parent had the affair?"

"Poseidon," I answered. His eyes widened in realization.

"Kinda lonely there, isn't it?" I could see what he was getting at. Poseidon was one of the more… let's just say abstinent gods.

"Yeah, I'm told one of my half brothers runs this place, but I have yet to see this."

"Oh yeah, Mr. Jackson."

"Why is it that everyone around here has seen him except me? I don't even think he exists. I bet he's one of the first year legends like snipes and ghost stories."

"Oh no, he's real." From the look in his eye I still couldn't believe him fully. WE were quiet for a minute. I half wondered about Atheros' whereabouts, half fantasized about Trip without a shirt.

"So… uh," He started, "Listen, you doing anything Fr-," He was cut off as Atheros galloped into view, literally.

"All right first years! Meet your sparring partners and mentors." Behind him came a group of mismatched kids, all wearing protective breastplates and helmets. Some of the older ones wore greaves as well. They all looked like a well seasoned bunch.

"Line up, then pair up." Atheros yelled. I wanted to get paired up with Trip, but of course another 12 year old girl had the same idea. My self esteem dropped a few points as I watched every one of the new kids find a partner. Finally, a young girl walked over. She was dressed in a full breast plate and had arm guards. Her helmet was not the regular brass ones everyone else had, it was a silvery color and had a glossy coat over it.

"I guess you're my partner." She said, did I detect some reluctance in there? Perfect.

"Okay everybody, raise your staffs. Repeat after me." We watched Atheros as he flung his full fledged sword in a set motion. "Understand?" He asked. I looked down at my wooden stick, it looked measly in comparison to the other kids practice swords.

"Yeah," I yelled with the rest of the group. "This looks like something out of Lord of the Rings." I added. I heard Trip snicker somewhere beside me.

"No," My partner interjected, holding her sword at the ready. I raised an eyebrow. Why that little twerp! "No, its more along the lines of lightsaber training than European martial arts." She finished, picking something off the end of her sword. I want to see that girl's face now. She knew! She knew! But that stupid helmet was in the way still.

Feeling the sand of the beach beneath my boots, I did exactly as instructed. We did it slow, fast, backwards and forwards. But by ourselves. The sun grew high in the sky, pelting each of us with its intensifying rays. I began to mentally curse whoever though leather was a good protector. I could feel the beads of sweat roll down beneath my leather vest. It was so nasty.

"All right, now that you all know the motions, turn to your partners. Fourth years, defense only. Do not employ any offense whatsoever. Ready? Go!" Atheros called over the crashing of the waves behind us. I could almost feel them calling. Those waves were maybe twenty feet away and all I had to do was run. I _really_ wanted to go for a swim. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash of silver. Clumsily, I held my "sword" up to block it. My partner quickly backed off and thrusted again, knocking me in the ribs with the broadside of her sword.

"Hey!" I cried indignantly, "Watch it!"

"Pick it up, or you're going to get whooped." Her muffled voice came from behind the face plate. With a flourish, she whirled the sword around and came at me again. Two minutes and a few hits later found me on my back with a sword pointed at my face. I was ticked. What happened to 'no offense', huh? Getting back up, I whipped my own sword around and tried to get at her. She blocked every one of my assaults. By this point I was beyond annoyed, I was livid. I attacked again. Three times. Three more times she had me on my back. I finally fell and didn't want to get up. Around my ankles I felt the cold splash of the water; in my mind I instantly knew the tide was coming in.

Suddenly, my body didn't ache as much, the scratches and bruises lost their sting. I felt the pent up rage from being banged up by the little pain-in-the-butt. Standing up, I switched the sword to my left hand and felt the grip warm to my touch. Looking into the face plate of my opponent I took a deep breath. Using the moves we had just learned, I made a pretty good offense against her, forcing my partner to defend herself instead of schooling me. I thrust my sword at her leg and knocked it out from under her, but she recovered quickly. I noticed a small crowd was gathering around the two of us.

"You're just now pulling the rage card? You'll have to try better than that, Rookie." She said with a chuckle between pants. That did it! I moved like I was winding up for a strike, then as she moved to block easily I faked her out. Dropping down, I tucked my head in, shot my hand out and grabbed her ankle. I stood up and with a mighty yank uprooted her stance. In my mind I heard "Timber!" and felt a small smile creep up on me. Before she could get up, I kicked her sword away from her and point my own at her throat. Suddenly, I realized how much I was in need of air, breathing hard and wiping the sweat from my brow. It was kind of a funny picture, me pointing a big stick at a girl who was lying on the ground.

"Go ahead," I panted, "Make my day." There were a few claps here and there in the crowd that had gathered. Quite a few laughs too.

"All right, break it up. Get back to work." Atheros called through the crowd. I pulled my staff back as my partner pulled her helmet off. Shaking her head I saw a spill of red hair accented with red tumble out. She opened her eyes, showing irises of hazel and fire.

"You cheated," She grunted. It appeared she didn't think me capable of taking her down fair and square. Where'd she get that pre-conceived notion, I wonder?

"I'm a Poseidon," I said, putting my staff down and offering my hand to her. "Not a saint," She took the hand and I helped her up.

"Thanks," she muttered, not looking at me. After pulled her hair out of its messed up ponytail she began to take off her nice leather fighting gloves, revealing perfectly manicured nails in shades of black and gold. Who is this chick? First she is some savage beast, fighting and taking people out, yet after words she gets her nails done? What is this?

"That's all for today, students." Atheros called out. "Same time Monday." We all broke. Trip jogged over to where I was standing awkwardly next to my partner.

"Dang, that was a pretty good show. Bailee's the best in her year." He praised.

"Thank you, Trip, you make me feel so good." The girl, Bailee apparently, said sarcastically. She ignored him as she pulled her hair up again.

"What year are you?" I asked.

"This is my fifth year." Suddenly, I felt so inferior. Trip laughed.

"I'm glad that someone could school her, even if it wasn't me."

"I was not schooled!" Bailee shouted indignantly. Trip just smiled irresistibly.

"Let's all be friends here now, play nicely girls." He laughed jovially. We still couldn't bring ourselves to look at each other. Well, at least I couldn't bring myself to look at her. I have my pride, you know. I watched Trip and was that a mischievous glimmer in his eyes? He sighed dramatically.

"Who were Han Solo's kids?" He asked, a little exasperatedly.

"Jaina, Jacen, and Anakin," Both Bailee and I answered in unison. Something clicked between us. We turned and finally looked eye to eye. I suddenly didn't see my enemy; I saw a friend.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

I have never wanted food more than I wanted dinner that night. Sitting down to dinner, I waited for Ben. My food arrived and I began eating, still no Ben. I'd fallen into my old habit of people watching. One of the Aphrodite girls was sneaking off with a boy through the shadows. Who knows what'll happen there. Keira sat by another boy at the Dionysus table. I guess she didn't like to eat alone. Now that I think about it, I probably looked pretty funny eating all by myself. I hadn't ever thought of that before. All the other tables looked pretty well occupied. Scanning the Apollo table, I longed for a glimpse of Trip but he wasn't there. There was another empty table nearby… well almost empty. It was the Zeus table, where Bailee sat. Eating her food, she seemed a little less intimidating than she did in her armor and helmet this afternoon. Against my better judgment, I picked up my tray and walked over there. She didn't even notice me approaching; over at the fire a couple Ares kids were waving flaming sticks around and spelling their name and being a hazard to everyone within ten meters.

"Hey," I said when I got in earshot. She looked up, her reflexes were starting to scare me. In acknowledgement to me she only nodded. "Can I sit here?" I asked, pointing to the spot next to her at the table. Turning back to her food, she shrugged.

"Sure, not like there's anyone to take it back."

"You're an only child too?"

"Not exactly, just the only one here." Bailee explained.

"Same here. So… when did you find out you were a…a,"

"Bastard?" She supplied darkly.

"Ok, I wouldn't go quite that far, I was thinking half…breed or something like that, but yeah in a way." She smiled at my squeamishness.

"It's a long story," She said as she shoveled in another couple of French fries. I looked around.

"You got somewhere else to be tonight?" When she was quiet I couldn't help but laugh a little. "You don't have to tell me if you really don't want to."

"No, no, its okay," She amended. "You really wanna know?" She seemed incredulous.

"Uh, yeah, why would I ask?"

"All right then, strap yourself in." She sighed. I got a chocolate frozen yogurt, like the ones my mom and I would get at Costco. Digging in, I looked to her.

"I was struck by lightning." She stated. When nothing else came I frowned.

"And… then what?"

"Well, my mom and I were out for a drive in a crummy part of town during a really big electrical storm. Our car broke down and my mom and I had to get out to fix it. I was supposed to keep watch for anyone because people had been known to be mugged, raped and murdered in this part of town. While she was taking a look at the car, I don't know what hit me but suddenly I was trying to sit up and breathe normally again. My mom said I'd just been hit by a lightning bolt and got this worried look on her face.

"She couldn't fix the car so we had to call a shop to come out and fix it. It was another hour wait until the mechanic came and he was a total jerk to my mother. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore and I got really mad. I stuck my hand out and these electric bolts flew out of my fingers and I electrocuted the mechanic." I about snorted out my Dr. Pepper.

"You electrocuted a guy?" I asked incredulously, "What happened to him? Is he okay?" Bailee lifted her own drink to her lips.

"I'll tell you when he gets out of the mental institution." She murmured into her drink. She swallowed then continued. "I do feel a bit bad about that." I smiled at the irony. "Anyways, my mom then took me home and told me who my father actually was."

"What was her BS story she fed you?" I asked, instantly regretting defaming my mother. Bailee laughed a bit.

"She told me he'd died serving the Army as an aircraft carrier pilot. I figured out she was lying in the third grade when a guy from the Army came to talk to us and told us the Navy had aircraft carriers." We both laughed but soon silence fell over the both of us.

"So what about you?" She asked me, "Where'd you come from?"

"Me? I got attacked by a Siren while I was doing laps at the pool." It was Bailee's turn to snort.

"And you survived? Last guy I heard had a run in with a Siren ended up raped, murdered, and hanging by his arms."

"Well, I would have died if not for…" I trailed off as my train of thought suddenly took off in a different direction.

"Not for what?"

"Oh, my friend Ben, he's a mermaid-man, merman and he I guess is immune to the Sirens or whatever."

"I got news for you, no man is immune to a Siren. He must have had his eyes set on something in order to get him to focus."

"Yeah, yeah I guess he did." We fell quiet again.

"Hey, I haven't had a chance to try out the plasma screen tv in my cabin, you wanna join me for a little Star Wars?" I asked. Bailee gave me a look.

"You'd let someone else into your cabin?"

"Sure," I laughed, "is there a rule that says I can't? You know what, don't tell me. Call it ignorance."

"Hmm, its just no one really goes into other people's cabins usually. The only other one I've been in was the Aphrodite one and I barely escaped with my life."

"Then aren't you dying to see the inside of another?" I asked. The way she smiled was different. It wasn't filled with dark humor or condescension, just good old fashioned friendship.

"Original or Prequels?"

"I thought you'd never ask." I think I've found myself a true friend.

Two weeks. I survived two weeks. It made it better having two more friends who weren't ordered to be my friend. Bailee and I had become inseparable. Though I eclipsed her in the water sports, she would easily whip my butt in combat. We made a pretty good team. Then there was Trip. For me it was the shy "I like you but I want to be friends first before we do anything" scenario. We'd hang out occasionally, but I didn't want to impose myself on him. But soon I found myself by his side all the time. I began to see less and less of Ben. At the beginning it was a simple game of "ditch the babysitter" but soon it just became routine to maybe see him before curfew. Ben was still friendly but I felt so much more at ease when with Trip. That is until the day when he… changed.

I woke up and did my routine stretches then headed out for the day. I had battle practice with Trip that morning so I wore my sporty pink tank top and my tight combat pants that had hide sew to the sides. I felt I looked pretty good in it. Once satisfied with my reflection in the mirror I headed out the door, grabbing my blade on the way out. Making my way across the sand, I had to fight that craving to go for a swim. The arena was pretty clear except for a few early rising Ares kids running a few laps and doing some karate. I waved to a few of the really cute ones, and then made my way to our designated meeting place. He wasn't there. It was unlike him to be later than me, but I figured we all overslept sometimes. I turned my back to the entrance to take stock of the karate members. Big mistake. Next thing I know is there is a loud yell in my ear and I am suddenly pinned to the ground by Trip.

"Remember the first rule of combat?" Trip asked, his eyes hungry for action. I squirmed, trying to get out from under his intense pin but to no avail. I held still for a moment and looked him in the eye.

"You mean 'All's fair in love and war'?" I asked as I quickly aimed a hard kick between his legs. Instantly, he was off of me, rolling around on the ground. I stood up and chuckled, slightly out of breath.

"That could be the only reason I enjoy being a girl." I pointed my sword at him. Suddenly, an exceedingly dark look over took his face. Grabbing his own sword, he met me straight on with full out violence written all over his face.

"Trip? What are you doing?" I asked as he began to slowly stalk up to me, raising his sword to his face.

"You're going to pay for that." He growled. I couldn't believe it. This guy had been the king of jokes and now this?

"Dude, I'm sorry, I didn't think it was that bad." I started to back up now, panic beginning to seep into my brain. Raising his sword, he ran at me and let loose a battle cry that made my blood run cold. I barely blocked his first attacks, each one oozed passion and vehemence.

"Trip!" I yelled, "What… is… wrong… with you?" I asked in between parries. With our swords locked, he let go and threw a harsh right hook. Luckily I saw it coming but my reflexes weren't quite up to snuff yet. I got a small clip on the chin. I felt my fears begin to materialize right before me.

"I said I was sorry!" I shrieked as we continued to fight, I was running out of options now. He was looking for blood.

"You are going to pay." He murmured again darkly.

"You already said that!" I screamed as I tried for an offensive move. Far too easily, he blocked it. He tried to throw another punch but I dodged and grabbed his wrist as it went by. I tried to hold on, to get him to stop, but he was too strong for me. My hand slipped when it latched onto the hemp bracelet on his wrist. Looking at the bracelet in my hand I knew what was coming. I hit the ground in enough time to dodge his swipe.

"Trip stop it! You're going to kill me!"

"You know what?" He said as I rolled away from him. "I don't know what he saw in you, you little twerp. You've got nothing but a famous dad to carry you and parade you around." He taunted.

"If you're trying to make me angry you're doing a damn good job!" I spat.

"Oh, you even swore, are you going to burn for that one now? Is Mommy going to appear with a bar of soap and some water?" I couldn't stop the feeling of the anger rising over its boiling point. In a rage, I threw my sword and reached my hands out to the ground below. I could feel the water sitting in the pipes from the early morning sprinkler job. I felt the anger flash through my eyes as I stared daggers into him. With a pop, the sprinkler next to him shot off and he was suddenly getting shot with 30 gallons of water per second straight in the mouth. I didn't care if he hated me after this. He needed a refresher in human interaction. I picked up my sword and headed out. I was done.

The tears didn't even register with me until I got back to the cabin and I walked into the bathroom. I looked a wreck. It didn't matter though. Turning the faucet on, I let the shower run for a moment while I undressed. I controlled my emotion until I stepped into that water and everything came running off of me like the water. I sobbed, long and hard. How stupid could I get? Hadn't I learned all those lessons watching all those girls in high school get into a guy and get her heart broken? I hadn't even considered being in love but here I was, crying in the shower. That was another thing. Could I have picked a more cliché place to cry? The water calmed me down. I even did a little water bending to help occupy my thoughts. Eventually I had to get out and get dressed.

It was getting close to lunch. I wasn't especially hungry though. I had curled up on the couch and had pulled up the Un-Tangling pillow that had the tassels I loved to straighten. He had tried to kill me. At least that was what it had looked like. Sitting there, I just mulled over the memory over and over.

"Hey, anybody home?" Bailee burst through the front door and made her way into the living room. "Come on, lets go grab some chow, I am starving, been fighting Dirk all day-,"

"And I have been kicking your butt all day," Dirk said as he swaggered into the room behind her. Bailee rolled her eyes.

"What part of 'stay out here' don't you understand?" Bailee moaned.

"Como se dise ADD, mi amiga." Dirk smirked as he came in. She shot me a look that said, 'please let me skewer the guy'. Then her face changed. Looking deeper, she could see something was wrong.

"Uh oh, you've got the Pillow. What happened?" She asked. I let a faint smile attempt to place it self but it soon faded back into my stone face.

"Nothing, just a small fight."

"Fight? With who? I had money on a couple of guys and I want to keep my investments safe." Dirk stated. Bailee sighed.

"Your sensitivity never ceases to amaze me." She deadpanned. Dirk gave a cocky grin.

"Thank you, I do feel like the sensitive type." He puffed his chest up. Bailee looked over to me we talked almost telepathically.

"Get out!" The both of us yelled to Dirk. A little shaken, he straightened his knife belt then headed out.

"I gotta um… I think someone's calling me." With that he disappeared around the corner.

"Nice guy," I commented.

"Ergh, I can't stand him. The only reason I even spar with him is because he surpasses me with knives and I can't have that. I really think I hate him"

"Hmm, he seems all right to me." I said.

"Yeah, you didn't just get pinned to a tree when you went to retrieve your knives." Bailee said, her face lost in the humiliation of the memory. "So what's wrong? You're looking a little blue." She had genuine concern on her face. I held out my arm and looked at it.

"I'd say tannish- gold." I stated.

"Come on, Sera, tell me." Bailee came and sat down next to me. "It's got to do with Trip, isn't it?"

"How'd you know?" I asked.

"I didn't, it was a guess. So tell me,"

"I think he tried to kill me." I finally came out with it. Bailee's face darkened.

"What do you mean?"

"We were sparring-,"

"Oh… pfft, he always does that with girls he likes. Goes hard and long and just when they think he's going to play dirty he goes for the good guy routine."

"I'm sure that's true, but this was … I don't know, different? I mean he-,"

"Sera, come out with it. You like him and I bet he likes you. Its just recess romance on steroids. Instead of pine cones and mudballs flying, its swords and punches."

"Well…"

"I got an idea, lets go do some studying in the library. I found you a new Atlantis book." I brightened when she said that. It must have shown in my face because she began smiling as well. I had become intimately involved in research about the lost city of Atlantis. To the point I had an entire sketchbook filled with notes and rubbings and drawings and all sorts of other things relating to the subject. I even discovered one of the wall decorations in my own cabin was Atlantean in nature. Bailee always rolled her eyes at my obsession and when she asked why I simply told her that I would explain mine when she would explain her obsession with Lord of the Rings. She had called a truce on that one. So needless to say, I couldn't pass this opportunity.

"Okay, let me grab my shoes and put in a ponytail and I will be right out."

"Don't take too long. If Dirk comes back I might have to kill him with my bare hands."

"Hopefully it won't come to that." I said as I stood up.

"Wanna bet?"

"Not against you." I smiled, feeling the weirdness of the morning and the strange circumstances begin to fade. Bailee shrugged again and headed out.


End file.
